How to Build a Raised Garden Bed

Space
Construct your beds someplace that receives at least five to 6 several hours of day-to-day daylight — the additional, the far better! Orient them north to south to prevent vegetation from shading every other out. Beds should really be at minimum a foot extensive, although no extra than 4 toes throughout to make weeding and harvesting workable. 6 to 8 ft long is regular and charge-efficient. Ten to 14 inches is an perfect peak to accommodate robust roots. Depart at the very least 2 or 3 feet among beds for strolling and wheelbarrow accessibility.

Wooden
The brilliance of a plank-and-rebar design (see earlier mentioned) is that just about every person wall is quickly replaced. Consider the natural way rot-resistant types of wood, this kind of as oak, cedar, and redwood.

Soil
You want the variety that is dark, wealthy, and loaded with microorganisms. Fill your beds with a mix of 50 to 60% excellent-quality topsoil and 40 to 50% well-aged compost. Ahead of each individual new developing period, take a look at your soil for pH and nutrient written content. You can purchase a package at most household-enhancement retailers. If your exam reveals a have to have for more vitamins and minerals like nitrogen and potassium, elevate amounts by performing in amendments these kinds of as bone meal and kelp. Costume beds with an additional ½ inch of compost afterwards in the expanding period to enhance natural make any difference and improve soil health.

Vegetation
If you’re building your beds in high summer, it is not as well late to plant fall crops. Sow seeds like carrots and lettuce right into the soil, or acquire midseason transplants for crops like kale and broccoli. If you’d somewhat wait around right up until future yr to plant, deal with the soil in your new raised beds with a mixture of grass clippings and shredded leaves in autumn — the material will compost prior to you are completely ready to start out in spring.

Drinking water
Elevated beds have superb drainage, which is fantastic for plant wellbeing, but they dry out speedily. Give your plants a very long consume in the early night, but check out them all over again on sizzling summer time afternoons. If the soil is dry, it’s a real scorcher outdoors, or you live in a incredibly hot and arid local weather, water once more. A programmable drip-irrigation system (check out a starter package from dripworks.com) is cheap and handy, offering consistent humidity straight to plant roots. Commit in a timer ingredient to preserve cash and water.